In the last few weeks her life has changed, she reports from the camps in Bangladesh where for years she has witnessed the banality of boredom and violence in the middle of nowhere, with Rohingya refugee Shonjida. A movement like she has not seen in decades, given that the last two months have seen the maximum number of sectors staged an uprising against the duo – Sheikh Hasina and her son.
This region which entertains almost three fourths Muslims consists of a huge population of around one million members who are Muslims hardly having any nationality and disturbed amid shocks of Bangladesh sheltering.
According to the International community, it was in 2017, and Hasina, as the Government then, received accolades for allowing the immigration of about 750000 people of Rohingya who were escaping from the border of Myanmar wherein a mass murder plot is currently being investigated by UN.
Most of the years have seen grossly rampant cases of malnourishment as well as daily breaks of gunfire exchanges in the camps whose dwellers are waiting that with Hasina’s chair being taken away, their unfortunate condition might become topical again.
42-year-old Shonjida only identified by her first name spoke to AFP and said “We and our children sleep at night in fear due to the shooting incidents.”
Shonjida works as a teacher. The unnatural conditions surrounding the children caused her to understand more about the diverse problems of her camp’s children and widows than she would choose to know, which is how she works.
They are able to assist only a portion of the families in the camp, as these families are refugees and are thus not allowed to attend schools, colleges and work in Bangladesh.
A number of these students suffer from malnutrition because of increased ration cuts; which are due to the reduction of incoming international aid.
Most of them fear the fights of other opposing armed groups who are fighting over the various camps, local reports claim that this year already over sixty refugees have died in such fights.
“We want silence and no more shooting. We don’t want our children to get frightened,” Shonjida said.
“With the new government in place, we know that it will provide us with peace, assistance and protection and also food.”
‘‘Jail island at sea’’-
Hasina was overthrown last month in a bloodless coup led by students who eventually chased her into the neighboring country of India shortly before thousands of people converged on her Palace located in the capital Dhaka.
This revolution put an end to the 15 years of governance which was characterized by arbitrary killings of the president’s rivals, restriction of the press and suppression of civil society.
Her choice to take in the Rohingya escaping from Myanmar did earn the trust of the US and other Western capitals whose representatives otherwise used to speak regularly on the abuses committed during her term.
But over the next years, elements in her regime’s effort to settle those refugees also attracted consistent condemnation from rights organizations.
It shifted more than 36,000 Rohingya people to the then-uninhabited and cyclonic-prone island of Bhashan Char to decongest the existing overpopulated camps.
Most of the people who were taken there stated that they had no other choice than to obey the authorities. One of the refugees told Human Rights Watch about their new home: it is an island prison in the middle of the sea.
The intimidating condition in the camps made it possible for thousands to undertake to fidget on cumbersome sea voyages to other Southeast Asian nations in the search of new homes, and many perished at the sea.
‘Where can we return?’ –
Nobel Peace Prize winning leader of the interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, a month ago promised upon commencement of office that he would remain deaf on those not on the Rohingya issues.
Countless of those in exile stated that the first weeks of the 84-year-old governance had inspired them.
“There was a time when we used Facebook and Youtube and discovered that a number of our community leaders spoke to them and even met them,” 48 year old Hamid Hossain, a community leader, told AFP. “I am more hopeful now. ”But Yunus also said that Bangladesh needed “the sustained efforts of the international community” in order to care for the Rohingya.
This week, He traveled to the United States, where he pressed for more assistance to the group and State Department officials announced nearly $200 million in new spending yesterday after Yunus met privately with President Joe Biden.
The unflinching Yunus equally called for measures that would expedite the relocation of Rohingya to third countries than wait for a situation where it would be possible and safe to send back the refugees where they came from.
The Rohingya, before the last decade’s inter-racial violence erupted in Myanmar, faced oppressive laws designed to instill apartheid, wherein citizenship was not accorded to them by the successive Burmese regimes despite deep historical ties to the region.
Rohingya eluded several planned repatriation schemes formed by Hasina’s government and Myanmar, which were denounced by the refugees as helpless, declaring that they would not partake in such relative safety without assured rights and protections.
The current security situation has deteriorated a great deal as compared to last year. In Myanmar, the military and military opposition have fought in areas predominantly populated by the Rohingya Muslim people.
“At times, people get killed out there,” said 42-year-old refugee Mohammad Johar to AFP. “How are we going to be able to return?”
